Cyrus Avery spends most of the year
working with an appointed committee to stitch together hundreds of
existing roads into the new system.

1926

November 11, 1926 -
Route 66
was officially commissioned
for the Chicago-to-Los
Angeles on to include
2,448 miles of road. With that designation came its acknowledgment
as one of the nation's principal east-west arteries. By the end of
the year only 800 miles of
Route 66
were paved.

The National Highway System was formed. People from eight states
established a
Route 66
Highway Association to expedite the building of the highway. The
theme name, "Main Street of America," was adopted. Phillips 66
gasoline appropriates the magic numbers and logo as new gas stations
sprout up along the highway.

March 4, 1928 - The "First Annual
International -Trans-Continental Foot Race,” or the "Bunion Derby"
as it came to be known, starts in
Los
Angeles. The race covered the entire length of
Route 66
to Chicago,
and then went on to Madison Square Garden in New York. The race, and
the first prize of $25,000, is won by Andy Payne, a 20 year-old from
Claremore,
Oklahoma - a
Route 66
town and the stomping ground of Will Rogers. He covers 3,422.3 miles
in 84 days, with an actual running time of 573 hours, 4 minutes and
34 seconds.

1929

By this time
Illinois
boasted approximately 7,500 miles of paved roads, including all of
its portion of U.S. Highway 66. A Texaco road report published
that same year noted the route was fully concreted in
Kansas,
66% paved in
Missouri,
and 25% improved in
Oklahoma. In contrast, the 1,200 mile western stretch
(with the exception of
California's metropolitan areas) never saw a cement mixer. Until
the height of the Great Depression,
Texas,
New
Mexico,
Arizona, and the desert communities of southeast
California collectively totaled only 64.1 miles of surfaced
highway along
Route 66.

Chicago
is becoming a dangerous place, especially in the suburb of Cicero,
which
Route 66
runs through and Al Capone makes his headquarters.

January 5, 1931 - Missouri
was the third state to completely pave its portion of
Route 66,
following
Illinois and
Kansas.
The last mile of original
Route 66
is paved in Phelps County just east of the Pulaski County line near
Arlington. The work crew tosses coins into the wet cement to
celebrate the completion.

1932

Odell Standard Oil Station established in
Odell,
Illinois.
It was closed in 1975, but still stands as a museum today.

Until 1933 the responsibility to
improve existing highways fell almost exclusively to the individual
states. The more assertive and financially prepared states met the
challenge. Initial improvements cost state agencies an estimated
$22,000 per mile.

The U.S. Government puts thousands
of unemployed male youths from virtually every state to work as
laborers on road gangs to pave the final stretches of
Route 66.

February, 1934 - The first Steak n Shake
Drive-In is established in Normal,
Illinois.

1934-1936

Dust bowl storms in the midwest
drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, primarily
fleeing down
Route 66
to the west. An estimated 210,000 people migrated to
California in search of land and fortune.

1935

Meramec
Caverns opens for tourists near Stanton,
Missouri.
Soon, barns and billboards dot the west and
Route 66
enticing visitors.

The Route 66 Cafe, which was first
called the Belevidere Cafe, is established in
Litchfield, Illinois.

September 26, 1937 - The "route" that
Route 66
followed changed over the years, particularly in
New
Mexico, where its original winding 506 miles were shortened to
399 miles. On this date it was officially rerouted directly
west from Santa Rosa to
Albuquerque,
New
Mexico, bypassing
Santa Fe.

John Steinbeck publishes
The Grapes of Wrath, dubbing Route 66
"The Mother Road, the road of
flight."

1940

Steinbeck's classic
novel, The Grapes of Wrath
is made into a film whichserved to immortalize Route 66
in the American consciousness.

An old coffee and donut shop for railroad crews
becomes the Eat-Rite Diner in St. Louis,
Missouri.

1941

The famous Coral Court Motel opens in Marlbourough, Missouri,
a suburb of St. Louis.
It closed in 1993, and sadly, was demolished in 1995.

December 8, 1941 - The United States enters World War
II.

1942

As a result of the war, automobile
production ceased, gasoline rationing began, and tires became
scarce -- all of which affected
Route 66. Massive creation of war industry jobs, mostly in
California, brought another wave of migrating people across
Route 66. The highway was important for military traffic, transporting troops,
supplies, and equipment. The road was not adequate for the traffic
it carried, and the difficulty of maintaining the road grew
throughout the war.

1945

World War II ends and Americans
begin traveling for leisure which was primarily an unknown past time
previously.

Jack D. Rittenhouse self
publishes A Guide Book to Highway 66 selling it door-to-door
at truck stops, motor courts, and cafes along the route. It lists
every community from Chicago to
Los
Angeles that existed on the highway along with attractions,
lodgings and services.

Robert (Bobby)
William Troup, Jr., of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, former pianist with
the Tommy Dorsey band and ex-Marine captain, penned a lyrical road
map of the now famous cross-country road in which the words, "Get
your kicks on Route 66"
became a catch phrase for countless motorists who moved back and
forth between Chicago
and the Pacific Coast. The popular recording was released in 1946 by
Nat King Cole one week after Troup's arrival in Los
Angeles.

Ell Rhea's Chicken Basket was first
established as Kolarik's Nationally Famous Chicken Basket in
Willowbrook, Illinois.
The name was changed in 1962.

1950

The "Family Vacation" begins as a
new American phenomena in the 1950's.
Route 66
became a destination unto itself. With its caverns and caves, scenic
mountains, beautiful canyons and sparkling deserts being heavily
promoted by the U.S. 66 Highway Association,
Route 66
became the ultimate road trip. This spawned trading posts, alligator
farms, full-service gas stations, grills with fried chicken, "blue
plate specials” and home-made pie, "mom and pop” motor courts,
Native American festivals and every other type of tourist trap.

Oklahoma was the
first state to deal the route its first official deathblow. In
1953, the Turner Turnpike (I-44) between Tulsa and Oklahoma City
opened, bypassing 100 miles of the legendary Mother Road. Other
states followed suit while the federal government's new four-lane,
straight-as-an-arrow interstate system gobbled up section after
section.

1955

The family-owned Circle Inn Malt Shop was established in
Bourbon, Missouri.

President Eisenhower instituted the
National Interstate Highway System (motivated by the German Autobahn
system he had observed during the war.) Originally, the
Interstate System was to be completed by 1972, but was not realized
until 1982.

The Launch Pad Drive-In opens in
Wilmington, Illinois.
The drive-in is the home to the Gemini Gian Statue, which was added
in 1965.

October 7, 1960 -
Route 66
TV series starring Martin Milner and George Maharis.
Though show aired 116 episodes ending on September 18, 1964.

1962

December, 1962 -
Missouri
petitioned American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials, on behalf of all the
Route 66
states, to have the interstates renumbered as I-66 from
Chicago
to Los
Angeles. Needless to say, the request was refused.

By 1970, nearly all
segments of original Route 66
were bypassed by a modern four-lane highway.

1977

January 17, 1977 - All of the signs
came down along
Route 66
in Illinois,
replaced by the super-highway Interstate 55.

1979

Route 66 Motors and Nostalgia Gift
Shop are established in Rolla,
Missouri.

1982

December 23, 1982 - The city of
Times Beach, Missouri is
found to be severely contaminated by dioxin

1983

February 23, 1983 - The entire town
site of Times Beach, Missouri is
bought out by the Environmental Protection Agency. Two years later,
every member of the former town has been evacuated and
Times Beach
is closed to visitors.

1984

October 13, 1984 - The outdated, poorly
maintained vestiges of U.S. Highway 66 completely succumbed to the
interstate system when the final section of the
original road was bypassed by Interstate 40 at Williams,
Arizona. The route was "replaced" by
Interstates 55, 44, 40, 15 and 10.

1985

Route 66
was officially decommissioned and the familiar highway markers came
down.

February, 1987

The Historic
Route 66
Association of
Arizona was formed by a small group of people from the
ArizonaRoute 66
communities, led by Angel Delgadillo of Seligman, and Jerry Richard
and David Wesson, both of Kingman.

1995

New Historic
Route 66
signs have been put up, documenting the different historic
alignments in
Illinois.

1999

In response to the recognized need
to preserve the rich resources of the historic highway, Congress
passed an act to create the
Route 66
Corridor Preservation Program. Administered by the National Park
Service, the program collaborates with private property owners;
non-profit organizations; and local, state, federal, and tribal
governments to identify, prioritize, and address
Route 66
preservation needs.